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VBA Chapter 6 of 24: VBA Security and Protection in Excel

Sometimes you send a workbook with macros to a colleague. If he can't get them to work it is probably because his security setting is at "High" . Just tell him how to change it in "Tools/Macros/Security" .

An Excel file (.xls) cannot be infected by one of these viruses that appear regularly on the Internet but somebody  can develop VBA procedures (macros) that can harm your data and your computer seriously. So set the security level of Excel to "Medium" (Tool/Macro/Security) and each time you open a workbook that contains macro the following dialog window will appear.

Adopt the same attitude as you have with documents attached to Emails. If you know the origin of the file you may enable the macros if not click on "Disable Macros" and you are fully protected. You can look at the workbook but the VBA procedures (macros) are not operational. You can go to the Visual Basic Editor to take a look at the macros and if they don't look suspicious close the workbook and re-open it enabling the macros. If in any of the modules or other elements of the workbook you see "API Function" it means that the programmer is trying to access your computer through Microsoft Windows THAT IS SUSPICIOUS.

Protecting the code

As an Excel-VBA Developer you might want to protect your code so that nobody else may modify it. In the VBE editor go to "Tools/VBAProject Properties/Protection" . Check the box and submit a password. Make sure that you save the password somewhere you will remember because cracking VBA passwords is very expensive.

613-749-4695 (Peter)
[email protected]

Home Page

Tips and Ideas on Excel
Table of Contents on Excel

Tips and Ideas on Macros
Table of Contents on VBA

Quick Links